Race organizers modify Sunday's Morgul Bismark road race course

SUPERIOR -- The small, silver, sun-shaped charm that hangs around Chris Winn's neck and is tucked inside his race kit is an Aboriginal symbol that means "human strength."

Winn (Horizon/Panache) used his own inner power while pushing through the final lap of the Superior Morgul Classic criterium on Saturday afternoon to win the second stage of the three-day race.

Winn, Kennett Peterson (Rio Grande) and Robin Eckmann (California Giant/Specialized) rode together for much of the 75-minute race, at times as much as a full minute ahead of the pack.

But it was Winn who pulled away with less than half a lap to go, finishing in 1 hour, 10 minutes and 35 seconds, 10 seconds ahead of Eckmann.

"I didn't want to take them to the line for a sprint because they're both much bigger, stronger riders than I am for the sprint, so I wanted to try and hit it on the last lap," Winn said of his last-lap push.

Winn moved to the United States from Melbourne, Australia, in 2008, and he carries a tiny reminder of his homeland with him on the bike by wearing the necklace. The Aboriginal people are indigenous to Australia, and have a distinctive culture that still thrives even after European colonization of Australia.

The 29-year-old Lakewood resident stood out at last year's Superior Morgul Classic, too, winning the road race and omnium title in 2012.

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Winn, Peterson and Eckmann pulled away early in Saturday's race, taking turns at the front of their small pack. After Winn crossed the finish line, Eckmann barely edged out Peterson for second.

"I wasn't really planning to go that early and all of a sudden we had a small gap," Eckmann said of the trio's breakaway. "A couple meters is always good. And then out of a couple meters we got a full minute."

Eckmann, of Boulder, said he felt tired Saturday, but muscled past Peterson because he wanted to stay ahead in the omnium standings. Looking ahead to Sunday's road race, Eckmann recalled finishing a fraction of a second behind Winn last year. He doesn't want to let that happen in 2013, he said.

"We'll see how the legs feel in the first few laps and go from there," he said. "I got second last year, so I've got high hopes."

In the women's race, it was Bermudian triathlete Flora Duffy with the win in 38:42, followed by 2012 crit winner Cari Higgins (Exergy Twenty 16), who finished in 39:08.

Duffy, who's competed in two Olympics for triathlon, won the omnium last year. She graduated from the University of Colorado last week, and said spring allergies had been bothering her this week leading up to the race, so her expectations were low.

The pro 1-2 racers took off 30 seconds before the cat 3 women, so by the end of the 50 minutes, the two groups were mixed. Duffy said she was able to pull ahead and put the cat 3 pack between her and the pros.

"I kind of secretly got out in front and no one noticed," Duffy said.

Second-place finish Cari Higgins noticed, she said, but it was too late. Because Duffy didn't participate in Friday's time trial, Higgins said she wasn't concerned about Duffy in the omnium. Higgins' teammate Heather Fischer followed in third place with a time of 39:08.

"It's a really hard course, it's one my favorites because it's so hard," Higgins said. "We let Flora go off the front because we know she's not an overall threat. It was awesome working with juniors and development riders to organize the race and the lead out there at the end."

Laurel Rathburn, a 17-year-old from Monument and Exergy Twenty16 junior development team member led her team on the final lap.

"By the last lap, I went through the corner first and then Heather Fischer was on my wheel," Rathburn said. "We sprinted from the corner and I just tried to do the best lead out I could do for Heather (Fischer) and Cari (Higgins)."

Race organizers scrambled all weekend to find enough traffic barriers and cones to make Sunday's road race a reality after Highway Technologies abruptly closed its doors on Friday.

Houston-based Highway Technologies had two Colorado locations, which provide traffic barriers and cones for major outdoor events like the Morgul Bismark. The company notified its 33 locations that it was going out of business Friday morning, effective immediately.

"The Morgul Bismark is deep when it comes to traffic barriers," said race organizer Lance Panigutti of Without Limits Productions. "(Highway) 93 took over one thousand cones."

He and race organizers for the Colfax Marathon and American Ninja Warrior competition in Denver, among others, have been scrambling to work with local communities and other small companies to find enough barriers to make races a possibility.

But there just aren't enough cones and barriers to make the race safe and they must alter Sunday's route, Panigutti said.

The modified course will be completely closed off from traffic. What was once a large loop that included Highway 93 will now be an out-and-back, starting and finishing on Coalton Rd. south of Community Park in Superior.

Cyclists won't travel on Highway 93 at all, Panigutti said, and instead will flip back around on Highway 128 to head east, back toward the start.

The changes make each lap 12 miles, slightly shorter than the original 13.3-mile course, though cyclists will still complete the same number of laps.

"We worked for 36 hours to round up enough equipment and couldn't do it," Panigutti said. "We weren't going to cancel, so we've come up with a new course that fits the amount of cones we have. It still includes 'The Wall.' Hopefully people love it."

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